How to Join First and Last Name in Excel

In many cases, you would like to join first and last name together from separate cells in Excel. The ampersand and character function can be used to join first and last name to make a full name. This tutorial will show you how to join two cells in Excel.

Join first and last name in Excel

The formula is based on two major parts the word first represents the first name and the word last represent the last name.

Formula to join first and last name

=first&” “&last

Figure1. Join first and last name

In the figure above, the formula used for joining first and last name is:

=B5&” “&C5for D5

=B6&” “&C6for D6 and so on:

How the formula works

The formula works on the ampersand function which uses special character &. The & character has a wide range of significance in MS excel and is used for joining data sheets. In this formula, the first name in B5 is joined with the last name in C5 using the & or ampersand character.

Although the Ampersand is widely used and is not only short but easy to use, there is another function that can also be used to join first and last name. The other function is known as the CONCATENATE function.

The formula used in the CONCATENATE function is as follows:

= CONCATENATE (B5,” “,C4)

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